While the Fed is secured, for the most part, people trying to enter the site would be concerned & possibly alarmed by the present situation (a barricaded building & no communication with those inside) ...

While the Fed is secured, for the most part, people trying to enter the site would be concerned & possibly alarmed by the present situation (a barricaded building & no communication with those inside) ...

Yeah, we have that concern, but we're only trying to buy ourselves a minute or two to finish the job. With a demon horde rampaging across the city, people probably aren't going to prioritize a barricaded building much (particularly when most people would expect buildings of high importance to try locking down against the demons). Likewise, since it looks like we'll be able to rig the place up with explosives and still get out at a decent pace at this rate, we actually want people to investigate the building not long after we've left... so that they have a chance of dying in an explosion/cave in.

While the Fed is secured, for the most part, people trying to enter the site would be concerned & possibly alarmed by the present situation (a barricaded building & no communication with those inside) ...

Yeah, we have that concern, but we're only trying to buy ourselves a minute or two to finish the job. With a demon horde rampaging across the city, people probably aren't going to prioritize a barricaded building much (particularly when most people would expect buildings of high importance to try locking down against the demons). Likewise, since it looks like we'll be able to rig the place up with explosives and still get out at a decent pace at this rate, we actually want people to investigate the building not long after we've left... so that they have a chance of dying in an explosion/cave in.

Complications : Motivation : Greed. Used to be poor, now tries to have as much as she can. Spends money faster than she can acquire it.

Thrills : she enjoyed acquiring and driving fast cars before; now, she's tough enough to face anything ! Bit of a prankster, prone to excessive displays of force - once, the DMV refused to give her an extension on her license. So, later that night, she just stacked as many cars on the roof and in front of the entrances and exits to the facility as she could find. Cost them almost a million to repair, and inconvenienced thousands of people for weeks !

Bitter : back home, the 'hero' who turned her in to the authorities was an even bigger crook than she was ! So she figured that everyone is working an angle of some sort, and presumes that the 'heroes' are just as larcenous as she is ("Everyone wants to remake the world in their image, but at least the villains are up-front and honest about it !") Prefers to 'teach supers a lesson' any chance she gets.

Weakness : vibratory attacks. Since her alternate form is crystalline, vibrations harm her a bit more than usual (all vibratory weapons are +2 against her).

Background : Petra grew up in Miami, and was always annoyed at seeing all that fancy stuff her family would never be able to afford. So she began stealing at a very early age - after all, the ONLY reason someone owns fancy stuff is to show off just how great and wonderful they were !

And no one was really that great. And besides, her victims could OBVIOUSLY afford to lose or replace anything Petra could ever steal. After all, if someone has five cars, would they really miss Petra stealing one or two ?She found the best payoff was with vehicles - so many fancy cars and boats, so many unscrupulous mechanics willing to pay for whatever 'spare parts' she could provide.

And since most of her victims were insured, they could get BETTER stuff for her to steal at a later date !Her parents tossed her out when she was eighteen (one arrest too many), and refused to have anything more to do with her until she cleaned up her act.

She never did.

About two years ago, she was buying new clothes almost every other week - they kept getting too small ! She had grown a full foot in over a month, but didn't figure out why until later. It seemed the chop shop she was working for used to be a warehouse for hazardous waste storage, and a few barrels buried there illegally had been leaking small doses of mutagenic vapor for weeks. The chemicals had induced a mutation - her body turned into stone (technically, a ceramic , chemically-resistant composite quite similar to the material lining the barrels ), and she became much larger, stronger and tougher.

SHE had gained mutant powers; the rest of the people working there didn't fare as well.

She now had the power to take whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. And no one could stop her. Or figure out who she really was, given that her stone form was much larger and didn't look anything like her human form.

And so her reign of burglaries and break-ins continued unabated for almost a year, until everything went south. Somehow, a few supers found out who she was and arrested her.

Turns out that one of her accomplices had tossed her 'under the bus' to make himself look good ! The populace thought he was a hero, when he was a bigger crook than she was !

It was then she figured out that everyone has an angle, and decided to give any uppity, self-righteous 'heroes' that crossed her path a quick lesson in pain.

Error in Immunity fixed - Immune to Cold/Fire Damage is 5 pp, Immune to Cold/Fire effects is 10 pp - that was what I was going for (being made of a bioceramic composite renders her resistant to thermal effects, but not wholly immune)

Wealthy immigrants from China, Jolenne and Michael Huang's baby girl was born an albino. Despite their love for their only child, both parents considered it an evil omen - white being the color of death in their culture. They had no idea how correct they were.

Vivian's psychic abilities first manifested at age five, when she realized she could pick up objects by force of will alone. One of her earliest memories is scaring a group of children by levitating their toys before their eyes, convincing them that she was a "ghost". These early experiments made her realize she was special, unique and gave her a taste of the obsession that would haunt the rest of her life: the exercise of power over others.

With her parents busy managing their billion-dollar financial empire, Vivian was left to a series of nannies and minders, on whom she practiced her fledgling powers. She soon developed the power to read minds, which she turned into a hobby, browsing people's memories like books. Glimpsing humanity's fears, desires and insecurities in all their raw, ugly glory would colour her attitude to the world forever. They would also give her unparallelled insight into manipulating people. She glided through prep school with flawless grades, terrorizing teachers and students alike with her ability to pluck secrets from minds, and won admittance to Harvard. Wherever she went, tales of haunted classrooms and poltergeists soon followed...

By now, Vivian had grown bored of petty cruelty and was looking for bigger, better things in life. On one hand, she craved the influence and power that her parents had; on the other, the minutae of business bored her. Chancing upon a fledgling supervillain group turned out to be just what she needed. For the first time she was able to use her powers openly and loved the adrenaline rush of battling heroes, the ill-gotten gains that resulted, and the media furore over her success. She adopted the moniker "Specter" after her childhood exploits and it wasn't long before charismatic, persuasive Vivian had ousted the group's former leader.

Specter's streak of success didn't last long. Celebrating after a successful operation, she got herself hopelessly drunk and her powers went haywire, injuring several. The resulting police investigation uncovered her involvement in several crimes as well as her secret identity. Michael Huang struck her out from his will, hoping to put some sense in her. Specter replied by way of attacking Huang International HQ in broad daylight, severely wounding over a dozen employees and guards and causing millions of dollars in damage before she was driven off by a team of superheroes. Cut off from the privileged life her family had provided her and with her compatriots in jail, Specter has struck out on her own to get back the life of riches and power she feels is her due.

Complications

Power Loss: Specter's powers demand mental focus to work. At the GM's discretion, effects that hamper mental concentration (nausea, drowsiness, hallucinogens etc.) may reduce the ranks of her powers or make them go Uncontrollable.

Enemy: Michael Huang cooperated with the police to bring his daughter to justice, and many believe that Specter's attack on Huang International Finance was in revenge for this. He doesn't hate his daughter, but feels that a little 'tough love' is long overdue. Huang can provide considerable personal information on Specter and may be willing to provide heroes with financial and material assistance in exchange for a promise not to hurt his daughter.

Enemy: Dreadnought is - was - the leader of Specter's last supervillain group. As far as he's concerned, they were doing just fine on their own. Letting that Chinese ghost-girl join was a complete mistake, though. She had everyone eating out of her hand within a month, probably thanks to some psychic mind voodoo, and they actually told him to step down! The gall! Well, he certainly taught her a good lesson when he slipped her something 'extra' in her drink that night. Oh, sure, they all landed in jail when she blew their cover, but that's probably a blessing in disguise, too. As far as the others concerned, they made a mistake trusting her in the first place and are going to get some payback once they escape from jail - under his leadership, of course.

Here's Specter. She's really good against anything not will shifted, and can support them team with communications and scouting. Specter doesn't have Insubstantial since she's not literally a ghost, but I'm thinking of adding some sort of resistable concealment effect.

Move Object: Specter's telekinesis is both precise and powerful, allowing her to manipulate multiple targets with fine control and fling objects at supersonic speed. Area Perception attacks don't allow for a dodge save to reduce the DC. Precise and Subtle allows her to do a lot of haunted-house tricks e.g. phones ringing themselves, the furniture rearranging of its own accord, etc.

Remote Sensing: Specter conjures a faint psychic 'double' of herself which she can use to scout in relative safety. The Doppelgänger generally can't be seen except by people with Mental or Psychic awareness.

Weaken Awareness linked to Damage: This is a 'psychic scream' attack.

Weaken Attack: Specter conjures a persistent, eerie sense of 'wrongness' that causes them to be constantly on edge and misjudge attacks. This is the only of her offensive powers that is not Subtle - others can feel the sense of spooky wrongness coming from her too, even though they're not affected.

Mental Blast: Specter floods the victim's mind with horrific images. So traumatic is the assault that it causes psychosomatic damage and lingers for some time even after she has ceased the attack. Fearless or Immunity to Fear/Emotions protects from this power.

Affliction: Specter injects a victim with a fragment of her psychic presence, bringing him/her under control. Mental attacks on the controlled victim affect Specter, not the victim.

Luck Control: Specter's psychic power is so potent, she can spend luck points to make enemies reroll Will saves versus her attacks.

Senses: Detect Minds allows her to sense sentient beings at range and attack them with her perception range powers. She can do so through concealment provided by objects (but not the Concealment effect). Specter can also track others through the psychic imprint they leave on areas they've been through.

Without her psychic powers, Specter is still a capable social combatant with high perception and insight, and good acrobatics and stealth.

Last edited by Ysariel on Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:33 am, edited 4 times in total.

Red & other current players, the Vault security team has locked themselves in their "Panic Room" (Toughness 15) to wait out whatever the villains have planned. They have no means of communicating with the outside world in there, but the officers still have small arms (handguns, at least), in case they decide to charge the villains later.

4 rounds (?) to shrink the gold - a long 20+ seconds ...

Prof. Weird is on stand-by to join the Vault team, pending current Player comment - I'm hoping tomorrow at the latest.

Precision's in place, so if Specter & Photonic work we're good for the duration - as long as everyone can keep the "at least once a day" posting guideline.

I'm not anticipating PvP action, although it happens. The adventure doesn't call for it, so if players were concerned, relax - that stated, if PCs end up at odds & I'm okay with a little scrap. It happens even with heroes